1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to video surveillance and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for secure transport and storage of surveillance video.
2. Description of the Related Art
Surveillance cameras are being deployed, often connected via a communication network, to monitor buildings, streets, public transportation, and other public and private areas. One goal of using surveillance cameras is to capture a video representation of events occurring at a particular time so that, if a crime is committed, the video data of the crime may be reviewed to learn the identity of the criminal. Where the video data is sufficiently authenticated, the video data may also be introduced in a court of law to help convict the criminal of the crime.
Unfortunately, it is possible to tamper with video data to change the content of the video data and, accordingly, video data is not necessarily sufficiently trustworthy to be introduced as evidence in court. To increase the reliability of video data to help ensure that the video data has not been tampered with, methods have been developed that enable authentication information to be added to the video data. For example, timestamps and digital signatures are commonly applied to video data to provide information about when the video data was created and to help detect tampering. Additionally, fragile and permanent watermarks (also called fingerprints) may be used to detect tampering. However, all of these techniques may be overcome by a person with specialized knowledge of the manner in which the authentication information was added and a desired to do so. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a new way of transporting and storing surveillance video that could increase the authentication level of the surveillance video data to make it more difficult to alter the content of the video data and, hence to make it more likely to be found trustable at a later point in time.